June 30, 2008

Ahhh, the rhythm of the seasons...Early morning prowlers sneaking through backyards, driveways and garages, peering in windows and knocking on doors demanding to give away cash. It must be yard sale time! Known by various regional monikers the world over (stoop sale and boot sale are my trans Atlantic faves), the buying and selling of one's used items is a generally well accepted past time, except if you happen to live in Switzerland. I couldn't even find a charity shop when I lived there. Either they don't have any thing they need to get rid of, or the Swiss are too polite to share that information with the general public. Stateside, way before the wonder drug that appears to be reality TV, Americans have been exposing their jock straps, bed pans and crock pots to curbside public appraisal, all in the hopes of carving out more space to store more stuff. And like a good American, instead of wearing a flag lapel pin, I recently took advantage of a classic yard sale moment and bought an ice cream maker, a purchase I had been contemplating for a good long while. Not a huge fan of appliances that do one thing, and I'm not talking about gobbling up counter space in your kitchen, it seemed a larger physical commitment than a financial gamble. Where would I keep it? I even dabbled with the idea of getting one of those ice cream balls, that you fill with ingredients and then roll around the bonfire to activate its magical frozen powers. Seeing as I don't have room for a bonfire, I opted for the plug in variety. Never hopeful, I remained skeptical until I tasted my first batch.
Kerpow, Batman. The best 5 yard sale dollars I spent this spring! I used whatever fruits I had on hand that fateful afternoon, the day I will remember as the severing of my love ties with Ciao Bella Sorbet, sob, sob; (well, except for their blood orange, which remains PERFECT and is continually sought after while forageing in the food wilds). David Lebovitz has written a great primer on ice creams, sorbets, granitas and more: The Perfect Scoop. He worked at Chez Panisse for many years and now lives in Paris, in case you need any convincing of his powers of good taste. I riffed off one of his recipes, combining two different fruits because I didn't have 2 mangoes on hand. The end result was a truly fab combo, both fruits spoke up and worked well together.

Peel the mango and cut away the flesh from the pit. Cut it into chunks and put into a blender with black raspberries, sugar, water, lime juice, rum and salt. Squeeze the mango pit over blender to pull out as much of the pulp and juice as you can. Puree the mixture until smooth. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to Manufacturer's instructions (which hopefully were included in your yard sale find). Once you take it out of the machine it will need to spend a few more hours in your freezer to be really frozen...if you can wait that long to eat it.

If you were a fan of our Great Moments in WFMU History posts, now is the time to surf between your sofa cushions for some extra change, because we've just added the glorious illustrated set of Great Moments trading cards to our online store.

Head on over there to get your hands on this lovely set of cards and be sure to check out the rest of WFMU Crapola Central, where you can find t-shirts, stickers, magnets, lunchboxes, temporary tattoos, CDs, beer coasters, and even cassette tapes!!

Throughout the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties, most issues of
Archie Comics featured a two-page spread titled Archie Club News. The
banner at the top of the page announced, "ARCHIE CLUB MEMBERS send in
your reports and be eligible to win cash prizes in the Archie Series
Magazines." The results of this venture were generally irrelevant notes
sent in like, "Dear Archie, have you ever heard of gerbils?"
Often what was sent in appeared to be part of a class project.
Elementary school children were in the process of learning how to write
letters and encouraged by a teacher to send something Riverdale way.
Sometimes the letters were weird or even profound and other times
prophetic or just silly. This letter originally appeared in Archie's Pals n' Gals #56, February 1970:

Dear Archie,

I would like to see you in the army, as a Staff Sergeant and Reggie a Private, and just see if you can get Betty and Veronica in the Wacs ... I am in the Army and I am representing my unit. A bunch of the guys were messing around and we figured it out. Archie should have Reggie on K.P. because he always seems too good to get dirty. I feel Jughead should be the Company Commander, and Big Moose should beat the heck out of all the officers and N.C.O.'s for making eyes at Midge, and then go to Viet Nam and end the war ...

June 28, 2008

Earlier this week, a little bit of awesome turned up in my inbox, via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel of all places. This gallery of retro cereal boxes is fun not necessarily because it's a reminder of all the crap I used to eat, but rather because it nicely highlights all the cereal ideas and kooky design ideas that didn't quite work.

In the 1960's, WLAC DJ, 'Hoss' Allen hosted a television show called The !!!! Beat shot in Dallas, Texas. He featured all the top RnB and Soul artists of the day, including Otis Redding; Little Milton, Esther Phillips,
Joe Tex, Etta James, Lattimore Brown, Rosco Shelton, Carla Thomas,
Freddie King, Barbara Lynn, Johnny Taylor, Maurice & The Radiants,
Louis Jordan, Mighty Hannibal, Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry, Robert Parker,
Joe Simon, Mitty Collier, Jamo Thomas, ZZ Hill, Lou Rawls, Bobby Hebb,
Willie Mitchell, Don Bryant, Ovations, Bar-Kays, Percy Sledge, Garnett
Mimms and Sam and Dave. There were 26 THE !!!! BEAT shows, and many of the performances were live in the studio with a backup band led by Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown. The good folks at Bear Family Records released every episode in the original master quality DVD format in 2005. Legend has it that Hoss was too drunk to host one night, so Otis Redding stepped up to the plate. Here is show # 26 from 1966.

June 27, 2008

Freed from a weekly radio commitment, I now relish the opportunity to listen to music the old way, the natural way, without always auditioning everything and imagining segues and conceptual ties, calculating the booty-shake quotient and all that baggage. This, of course, necessitates an honest reappraisal of my record collection, a little soul-searching, and some cold hard looks at just why the hell I'm hanging onto three John Denver records.

Other questions I'll have to ask: is there really any reason for anyone to actually own a Beatles record? And do I love John Cale so much that I'd repeatedly sit through The Academy in Peril like I was guzzling raw egg yolk? I'll address all these questions and more, and acknowledge up front that the general impulse at work is no doubt sentimental and fetishistic. e.g., I don't like Caribbean Sunset either, but I'm untroubled by that because I don't have it.

Alright, here goes...

John CaleThe Academy In Peril I've listened to this album in its entirety once, maybe twice; I've begun to listen to it countless times, and been knocked catatonic by its total aimless boredom nearly every time. But it's Cale, with an amazing Warhol cover, and a great title, and all these weird associations I inexplicably have for it that make me get just a little excited every time I flip by it on the shelf. But I can't stand it, go figure! So I'll probably always have it.

The Beatles. What's the point? It's hardly worth having an opinion about The Beatles, let alone any of their records. But I've got both. Aside from Beatles for Sale, that fantastic melancholic and miserable downer, the only reason I keep any other Beatles record is because someone keeps stealing all of the WFMU library's copies. Not a good reason. Have I got the strength of my convictions to get rid of them? Wish me luck.

June 26, 2008

Here are a few rare clips of Italian prog, arranged in order of ridiculousness and in inverse order of talent. On the top left are the absurdly overdramatic Officina Meccanica. There are some legitimately good moments here, but I'm mostly just awed at the strange demeanor of the band and awful synching of the video. One might expect a folkier sound from Blocco Mentale (top right) given their obviously strong relationship with mother nature - but one often expects unrealistic things, doesn't one?

On the bottom left is Italy's most ambitious attempt at symphonic prog, the New Trolls' Concerto Grosso. I find the drummer's small mistakes incredibly annoying, especially given that somebody paid a lot of money for a professional symphony to play with these hippies. At bottom right are the truly talented prog-jazz fusion dons Area. I'd understand if you don't want to listen to all the interview material interspersed in the video, but I would definitely recommend that you check out footage of singer Demitri Stratos yodeling at a handmirror at about 5:50 into the clip and a second band performace at about 7:45. Until next week...

And in a lame mash-up idea, I am jonesing for someone to play these
over the top of Wizard of Oz instead of that other thing (though maybe
playing Wizard of Oz backwards at the same time would break your
brain).

On June 3, 1955 Barbara Graham and two of her partners in crime were executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin for their part in the brutal murder of Mabel Monahan in Burbank, California. Born on 6/26/23, Graham might be celebrating her 85th birthday today if she hadn't been convicted. To be perfectly frank, I let the more significant date, that of her execution, slip by unnoticed so we'll settle for marking her birth date instead.

Graham, along with a few accomplices, had heard rumors of a large amount of cash hidden in Mabel Monahan's house. Unfortunately for Monahan, she made the mistake trying to help Barbara Graham when Graham claimed she had car trouble and asked to use the phone. When Monahan opened the door to Graham, the whole gang streamed in and commenced ransacking the house and pistol-whipping Monahan in an effort to get her to give up the money's supposed location. Police officers found Monahan's blood splattered across the floors, the walls and all over the furniture and the rugs. No stash of money was ever found. The coroner ruled that the cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation and a cranial hemorrhage.

Actress Susan Hayward won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Graham in the 1958 movie I Want To Live. Prior to filming, director Robert Wise attended an actual execution at San Quentin in order to help him authentically capture his film's climactic event. At the right is a photo of the house where Mabel Monahan was killed. It's located at 1718 West Parkside Avenue in Burbank, just a couple blocks east of Disney Studios. Thanks to Lisa Burks' blog for the photo. The house was sold not too long ago for $749,000. Not surprisingly, the realtor's "House For Sale" web page made no mention of Barbara Graham or the bloody mayhem that transpired in the house in March 1953.

June 25, 2008

(photo: Guardian) Live over WFMU: We just received word that we will be broadcastingSonic Youth's set live from Battery Park on July 4th! Tune in somewhere around 4:45 PM during Hot Rod's fill-in for Billy Jam and join FMU's parkside contingent (we'll have a table area so stop by) as we usher in freeform/freakform guitar fireworks with Thurston, Lee, Steve, Kim, and Mark. And if you scored a ticket (it's sold out), don't forget to get there early for the return of the mighty Feelies. Gates at 2PM. The show is presented by River To River/Downtown Alliance with special support from WFMU as part of our 50th Anniversary and ongoing 2007-2008 Free Music Series.

Summer's a good time to remind ourselves of the rules of highway safety, and what better way is there than with some 1960s-era public service announcements? As an added bonus, you'll get to hear Agent Maxwell Smart himself in one of the most hilarious examples of phoning it in ever captured on record.

Over 50 years ago, one of the greatest media hoaxes ever was foisted upon New York City and the world at large. Overnight WOR-AM radio show host Jean Shepherd asked his listeners ("the Night People") to go into bookstores and ask for a book that didn't exist. Armed with a fictitious title and author, along with a vague plot outline, the Night People got their hooks in wherever they could. Fueled by bewildered bookstore owners and distributors, I, Libertine eventually did end up as a genuine bestseller. The crazy tale is recounted here in Shep's own words on Long John Nebel's radio show from 1968.Jean Shepherd on Long John Nebel's radio show (MP3)

So I'm not a frequent blogger, but was feeling it was time for a post...sometimes it comes to me, sometimes it doesn't. Up to the other day, it hadn't. I was in the middle of my program last Thursday, playing a piece by the Squirm Orchestra called "Nature Slaughter Scenes" and BAM!! It hit me. But I'll give you some info on the catalyst before I go into another horrific story of something else I've seen in my life that was mortifying, and I just happened to be there - don't get that reference? Check a past blog post here. Squirm Orchestra are from the Indiana/Michigan area, are a sextet, whose improv electro hand-sewn cd: Somersaults Inside Ourselves is in the WFMU new bin right now. It's finely crafted both visually and aurally; nice! OK, now for the bloody stuff, goody!

June 24, 2008

Back in the '20s, in order to catch the new thing before rival record companies, labels would set up shop in a fixed location and invite musicians from far and wide to record. Victor snagged the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers in Bristol. In 1929 and 1930, Brunswick (with its blues wing Vocalion) chose the St. James Hotel in Knoxville, TN as a recording location and musicians from all over traveled there to sing into the machine.

A couple years back Lynn Point Records posted a veritable treasure trove of mp3s from the St. James Sessions including tracks from the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, the Appalachian Vagabond, Leola Manning and the Southern Moonlight Entertainers, plus tons of info including a couple great articles by St. James expert Jack Neely. Below is a short video documentary on the St. James Sessions, as well.

When it comes to guitars, I'm what you would call a "looker", as in I Like To Look, and "Looky, what a cool guitar". When I get the gumption once a few decades, I might even spring for one, which is what I did just yesterday for a bass. I'm not gonna talk about the bass because then it'll get ugly with me and you guitar enthusiast types out there. Yeah, if I had $2500 I'd get a Rickenbacker bass, which would mean I probably had another $2500 somewhere and I'd have to have two Rics then. Well, I don't have that kind of scratch so I got something new but affordable. In my travels around the internet browsing and gazing at guitars recently though, the proliferation of the Girly Guitar has officially saturated the Guitar Dewd Marts around the country. With brands like Luna, Daisy Rock, and the Les Paul Goddess the ladies now have the option of specially-sized and brightly colored axes to play. This apparently now raises new dialogue about our die-hard perceptions of The Rocker and the esthetic of the guitar to the body.

June 23, 2008

I realize that Alex Jordan's House on the Rock, in Spring Green, Wisconsin, has been covered thoroughly on the pages of this very blog before. But, while rummaging though dusty old photographs in my hard drive I remembered that Jim and I visited the place several years ago, and I never got around to putting the photos that I took up on the web in any capacity. This is in part because most of the pictures I snapped—during our endless, day-long walk through the attraction's dreamy, fluctuating, warrenlike corridors—came out too dark and blurry (I'm no wizard when it comes to dark settings and digital cameras). Nevertheless, eons later I've weeded out the ones that turned out okay enough, and uploaded them onto a 66-photo Flickr set. As I've said, images and stories of people's visits to House on the Rock have been on the internet for a while now...but I hope that some of my detailed pictures can at least offer a few unique glimpses of it, perhaps for people that can't visit the
actual place because they live in an iron lung or something like that.

This is a re-post from two weeks ago. Who would have thought this mini-tribute would suddenly join legions of others?

Anybody associated with comedy in any capacity naturally acknowledges the profound breadth, influence, ability and genius of George Carlin. His has been a long and varied career, and with any artist whose work spans multiple decades, eventually people forget what that person's career was like at the start if they knew about it at all.

George Carlin was originally a member of the comedy team Burns and Carlin with the very funny Jack Burns. When the two split up, Burns persued acting and would replace Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show as Mayberry's new deputy. Burns eventually found success in the seventies with Avery Schreiber in the comedy team Burns and Schreiber, and was also the primary director of The Muppet Show. He also attacked Andy Kaufman on that famous episode of Fridays. Carlin, of course, followed a solo path that took a fascinating few years to come to fruition.

After splitting with the world of comedy teams Carlin struggled to find his voice as a solo performer. He was an impressionist for several years and a very, very good one. To this day there are no other mimics who have mastered a Mort Sahl or Lenny Bruce that I know of. Both of Carlin's vocal impressions of the two comedians whose footsteps he follows in are bang on. Listen to Carlin's impersonation of Mort Sahl off the only comedy LP of Burns and Carlin (pictured) here. There has recently been a sudden influx of early George Carlin stuff on YouTube and that's what I'm sharing today.